Leafs show no mercy to injury-hit Senators

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Toronto Maple Leafs showed no mercy to their injury-ravaged rivals on Saturday in claiming a 3-0 victory over the Ottawa Senators in the 'Battle of Ontario'.

While every team in the lockout-shortened season have had to deal with injuries, few, if any, have been hit as hard as Ottawa.

The Senators have five players on what amounts to an All-Star disabled list, including Erik Karlsson, the reigning Norris Trophy winner as the National Hockey League's top defenseman.

They were forced to call up fresh troops from their minor league affiliate, with Derek Grant, David Dziurzynski and defenseman Eric Gryba all making their NHL debuts.

The game was Ottawa's first without leading scorer Karlsson, and with top playmaker Jason Spezza also out of action, the team could not find a way to put a puck past Maple Leafs' backup netminder Ben Scrivens, who stopped 34 shots in his first career shutout.

"Any goalie will tell you a shutout is a team stat and the guys definitely helped me out big-time today," Scrivens told reporters.

"Definitely happy I was up to the task, test my mettle but the way the guys played in front of me made me look pretty good.

The Maple Leafs' injury list is also impressive, with number one netminder James Reimer, first line winger Joffrey Lupul and top four defensemen Jake Gardiner and Carl Gunnarsson all sidelined.
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